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  • The Sudden Appearance of Hope

  • By: Claire North
  • Narrated by: Gillian Burke
  • Length: 16 hrs and 29 mins
  • 4.1 out of 5 stars (468 ratings)
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The Sudden Appearance of Hope cover art

The Sudden Appearance of Hope

By: Claire North
Narrated by: Gillian Burke
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Summary

Winner of the 2017 World Fantasy Award

Claire North has been shortlisted for The Sunday Times/PFD Young Writer of the Year Award

My name is Hope Arden. I am the girl the world forgets.

It started when I was 16 years old.

A father forgetting to drive me to school. A mother setting the table for three, not four. A friend who looks at me and sees a stranger.

No matter what I do, the words I say, the crimes I commit - you will never remember who I am.

That makes my life tricky. It also makes me dangerous....

The Sudden Appearance of Hope is the tale of a girl no one remembers, yet her story will stay with you for ever.

©2016 Claire North (P)2016 Hachette Audio

Critic reviews

"A mesmerising writer." (Alex Marwood, author of The Wicked Girls)
"North's talent shines out." ( The Sunday Times)
"Little short of a masterpiece." ( The Independent)

What listeners say about The Sudden Appearance of Hope

Average customer ratings
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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

This is the patent age of new inventions

for killing bodies, and for saving souls. All propagated with the best intentions.
Lord Byron

This is a very clever book that manages to entertain while questioning our present as if it was a dystopia in some not distant future. The apps, the test and the tech in general are all now only the inexplicable forgetting is not of this world and some of the treatments, as far as I can remember.

Intelligent and beautifully written, with so many Ideas and questions about humanity and motivations, wants and needs, society and freedom, and how easily we relinquish ourselves to the desire of perfection at any cost.

This a book that travels the world exploring the Ideas and and cultures, tasting foods and ideas exploring the identities we take in a global game.

The main character Hope is complex and likable full of life and vulnerability. So is Byron one of her main contacts, even the enemy is at time humanized with motivations that are more complex than the standard evil of badly made caricatures.

Fast paced with many devices being used to explore language and writing while including the reader in the memory game with beautiful ease, a truly enjoyable book that delivers in many levels.

“There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,
There is a rapture on the lonely shore,
There is society, where none intrudes,
By the deep Sea, and music in its roar:
I love not Man the less, but Nature more,
From these our interviews, in which I steal
From all I may be, or have been before,
To mingle with the Universe, and feel
What I can ne’er express, yet cannot all conceal.”

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Not quite hitting the spot

When the story is actually happening it's interesting. I found it hard to get past what could only be described as a heavy peppering of really bad poetry at every emotive opportunity.

This book had a lot of good ideas but I find myself looking at it like a cake someone decorated poorly, thinking what a shame. At least it tastes nice.

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Brilliant - and a little frustrating

The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August is probably my favorite novel of the last few years - I re-listened to it while waiting for the publication date of this one - and on balance I have found both this new book, the Gameshouse novellas and Touch terrifically entertaining but not quite up to the first book's brilliance. That said, I am setting a very high standard for Claire here, her writing is hugely inventive, her themes genre-defying and her knowledge astonishing.

There is certainly a formula that works for her. Her protagonists have some sort of supernatural "quirk" and go on rather glamorous - almost James Bond like - road trips around the world as the plot develops. This time I found that the combination of thriller and philosophical pondering about the nature of individuality didn't quite gell perfectly. The book luxuriates in its characters and although it is fairly fast paced in the main, some sections feel overlong.

That said, I'd still rather listen to a Claire North book that is not quite perfect than almost any other author, so perhaps I am being a little over critical.

The reader is well-chosen. Hope is of mixed race, and so is Gillian Burke. Her voice has a faint twang to it that is hard to place so that she gives the main character an other-worldly quality that is entirely appropriate. She only loses a star for a rather distracting Scottish accent towards the end of the book that might have been better left unattempted. Otherwise, I enjoyed her epic performance and I'd like to hear her read other books.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Great concept but unsatisfactory execution.

The notion of not being remembered is one that is very interesting but I feel the potential to explore this was lost in the subplot involving the technology surrounding perfection. Both ideas warrant their own book. The narrator is good but her Scottish accent is dire and distracting.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Disappointing

I'd just read a novel by Claire North (Touch) thought I'd like some more of her work; oh dear, by the half-way point I'd lost the will to keep listening, so good in bits but meanders forever, tedious and a drain, I finally gave up waiting and hit Delete.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

I loved the concept

What did you like best about this story?

A great story with reflection on human values and the unusual condition of the main character highlights our view of the world.

Any additional comments?

I have listened to 3 of Claire North's books and I love them.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Another Winner

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes. Without reservation. This author writes with imagination; and without fear.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Hope is the character with the flesh, and she is impossible to put aside. She grabs you from the first line and holds on until the end of the book.

Have you listened to any of Gillian Burke’s other performances? How does this one compare?

I am not aware of this narrator but feels she handles the narrative with ease and empathy.

If you made a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

Remember me....if you can.

Any additional comments?

This is the fourth of Claire's books I have read and have yet to be disappointed in any of them.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Interesting story but one flaw.....

A realty good concept and a great narrative with brilliant narration. However the whole premise of the story, which is unusual, defies attempts to get your head around. If you put that to one side, or get your head in the right space, it does work.

Really worth listening to and contemplating what it might mean for all of us if you're that way included. Enjoyable and worth investing the time to listen and think.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Just wow

Claire North's books just get better and better. A wonderful book. Extraordinary plot. Great depth of character and beautifully crafted. Gillian Burke's reading is wonderful as well.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Beautifully written!

Deep, interesting, beautiful! Reads more like a poem than a novel. Thoroughly enjoyed my time with hope - nothing like I've ever read before, absolutely breathtaking! Narration was fantastic too - deep rich voice to get lost with, brought the story and characters to life.

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3 people found this helpful